Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Easter Clark]

A colleague and I were discussing the merits of pair work today. She said that there is no reason to employ it in her class of 40 middle school students because they either:

1. Don't speak to each other at all (highly dependent on their assigned partner)

2. Speak only Korean to each other

or

3. Read dialogs verbatim without adding their own thoughts.

She also said that since her class is now strictly teacher-centered, the students' level of spoken English has actually improved, and "weekly time with the waeguk" is no longer time to goof off.

I do agree that a *well-designed* speaking task will in a sense demand that the students use the target language (i.e., information gaps). However, when I was mulling this over today, I thought to myself "Why do we insist on pair work in the classroom when students seem far more comfortable (and interested) when doing choral drills?"

In an ESL setting, students are highly motivated to learn English and will use any allotted time to practice wisely. In that case, dividing the class into pairs maximizes students' opportunities to speak and allows the teacher to monitor the students, assessing which ones have "got it" and which ones are struggling. The teacher can also address individual errors more effectively this way.

In my classroom (which admittedly may not be representative of the typical Korean classroom, I don't know), students are fine during drills, listen-and-repeat, and listening exercises, but are often at a loss when it comes time to put the new language to use in a role play, gap fill, etc. This may be due to the Korean education system of rote memorization and learning to the test.

When I give my students chances to express their opinions, they often go with the group. An example from a recent lesson on movie genres:

(students' thought process)

{"I like comedies because they are funny" must mean that "I like comedies," so when asked whether or not I like comedies, this is the answer I must use.}

Even though they have a choice to say that they don't like comedies, that comedies are silly, or that they prefer horror movies.

I'm still a little new to EFL, this being my sixth year teaching, but I am considering doing away with pair and group work altogether in my classes of low-level vocational high school students.

Any arguments for or against pair work in Korea?

[bassexpander]

The problem begins with having 40 students in class.

Far, far too many.

My classes are often 30 to 35 at my uni, and that is far too large.

Classes should be 15 students max, IMHO, but this is Korea...

[Otherside]

In my limited experience, pair work is GREAT in small classes. With 10 or less students it can increase each student's speaking time dramatically. This works really in conversation type classes where the students have a reasonable level of English (best with adults IMO). However, in a public school setting it falls flat on its face (for the reasons mentioned). That being said, I'm going to persevere with it for a while as a few students actually do the work and reap the benefits. Today I was teaching my 6th graders and of the 12 pairs (smaller class, I know), 2 actually made an effort and did their bit - I'll take the small victory.

[Easter Clark]

[Jimskins]

"In an ESL setting, students are highly motivated to learn English and will use any allotted time to practice wisely" = that is a wee bit of an over-generalization.

"Students seem far more comfortable (and interested) when doing choral drills?" = because they are mechanical, require almost no thought at all and are relatively meaningless:
Dakin (1973) 'the tumtetum effect'

TEACHER: Tum tumtete tonk te
LEARNER: Tum tumtete tonk te
TEACHER: konk
LEARNER: Tum tumtete konk te
TEACHER: bonk
LEARNER: Tum tumtete bonk te
TEACHER: honk
LEARNER: Tum tumtete honk te

"In my classroom (which admittedly may not be representative of the typical Korean classroom, I don't know), students are fine during drills, listen-and-repeat, and listening exercises, but are often at a loss when it comes time to put the new language to use in a role play, gap fill, etc"

= because drills, listen-and-repeat and listening exercises bear little or no resemblance to real conversation and interaction. They should not be thought of as practice for role play/gap fill activities, role play/gap fill and other communicative activities are the practice for 'the real thing' outside the classroom.

Students in Korea (and most East-Asian countries) will be at a loss when doing gap activities and working in pairs or small groups because it is not what they are used to, you have to train them in new learning styles by introducing it slowly.

A well-designed task will get them speaking. It is possible to do pair work and small group work with 40+ student classes if you plan it well (see F. Klippel and P. Ur for good ideas).

I know the aim of many High School/Middle School programs will be just to pass exams but if you really want your students to be able to speak English well, pair work/small group work is essential and should be used as often as possible (learner level in this context is not as important as you might think). You will not find a single leading academic in the field of teaching speaking who disagrees with this point (see M. Bygate, K. Johnson, P. Ur, J. Harmer, D. Byrne, W. Littlewood, etc etc etc). The 'drill' died a death in the 1970's, but it will still take another twenty years for all of the thinking and books surrounding it in the classrooms to be phased out in favour of the (infinitely) more effective communicative approaches.

Please don't give up on pair work
your students (though they may grumble) deserve better than the choral tumtetumtetumtetum...

[Mi Yum mi]

[Easter Clark]

[indytrucks]

[nomad-ish]

i voted for yes. it probably would work much better in small classes, but i think giving kids about 4 min. to practice a dialogue while i walk around and help them is a good idea. afterwards i go over the words most commonly mispronounced again, then ask for pairs to read in class (i admit that i bribe them sometimes). it's a good idea for kids to get used to reading english in front of their classmates

[spliff]

Coordinated pair work is paramount in the EFL setting...the more the teacher talks the less opportunity for the student. Additionally, class management skills are also crucial, especially in large classes of low levels.

[LostinKSpace]

The most authentic English that students get in the classroom is from your language of instruction.

Dialogues are forced and often unnatural, but you can have fun with them by allowing the students to come up with variations, or by teaching adverbs and have the students do the dialogue in a particular way.

Unfortunately many students in PS lack the English ability to produce English outside of the textbook, and having a class for 45minutes once a wk isn't going to change that, especially if you are teaching absolute to false beginners, but you carry on and make the class as interesting as you can, by giving tasks which are achievable, and drilling is one of them because it gives the student the framework to be right (and we all know how important that is here). However, to only use drills and not give the students the opportunity to manipulate the language is a trap which is easy to fall into.

[ajuma]

I find that giving the students a few options for the dialogue, then having them write out the dialogue first (in pairs) THEN, practice it when I'm there really increases their understanding.

Using the movie example:

I like, hate, don't like, 'm not crazy about comedies because they're silly, funny, great, terrible, boring.

When they write the dialogue, they actually have to think about what they're saying, and not just typical listen/repeat.

[Dome Vans]

[Easter Clark]